Centaur Theatre 2012-2013 Season to Include GOOD PEOPLE, TRAD, DANCE ME TO THE END

Centaur Theatre's 2012-2013 Season will open with the North American Premiere of an international Dance/Theatre/Music/Performance work directly from Aarhus Denmark inspired by the music and lyrics of Leonard Cohen Dance me to the end on/off Love. A Granhøj Dans creation, Oct 2 - Oct 21 and November 13 -18, 2012.

Centaur follows with the Canadian Premiere of the Broadway hit comedy/drama Good People by Pulitzer Prize- winning author David Lindsay-Abaire, November 6 - December 2, 2012.

In February, in co-production with The National Arts Centre, we stage the poignant story that rocked Canada in 1959, Innocence Lost: A play about Steven Truscott, by Beverley Cooper running January 29th to February 24th prior to its Ottawa run.

The Quebec English-language Premiere of August, An Afternoon in the Country by three-time Governor General's Award winning Franco-Ontarian playwright, Jean-Marc Dalpé, gives a look at four generations of a Quebecois family, beautifully translated by Maureen Labonté, March 26 - April 21, 2013.

Centaur ends the season with a raucous ride on a city bus with Axis Theatre's The Number 14, an international hit created in Vancouver and celebrating its 20th Anniversary with a North American tour playing Centaur, April 30 - May 26, 2013.

Ancillary events include Brave New Looks: Scapegoat Carnivale presents The Bacchae, October 11 – 20, 2012; Urban Tales, our antidote to holiday sweetness, December 6 - 15, 2012; and the hottest two weeks in winter to bring the New Year in, the annual Wildside Festival, Sweet 16 Edition. January 3 -13, 2013.Centaur's 44th Season Lineup

October 2 – 21 & November 13 - 18, 2012

North American Premiere

DANCE ME TO THE END ON/OFF LOVE

By the Granhøj Dans Company

A performance steeped in the seductive and evocative music of songwriting legend Leonard Cohen. Combining theatre, dance, visual arts and live music, this work explores the architecture of the body and abandons itself to the irresistible sensuality, longing and melancholy that define the lyrics and music of Dance Me to the End of Love and other songs by Leonard Cohen. Created by the Granhøj Dans company in Aarhus,Denmark and ounded by Artistic Director and Choreographer Palle Granhøj, the thirteen member company has toured extensively around the world.

Set in Boston's tough, working class, Irish neighbourhood known as 'Southie', Good People is the powerful and ferociously funny story of a single mom who loses her job at a dollar store. Desperate to provide for her disabled adult daughter and avoid eviction, she tracks down an old flame and begs him for work. He is a successful doctor who has escaped his Southie past and lives in wealthy Chestnut Hill. Their opposing worlds collide, revealing what it means to be destitute in a culture that pursues the American dream and believes opportunity comes to those who work hard enough.

In the summer of 1959, a sleepy town in rural Ontario was rocked by a tragedy that changed the community forever and sent shockwaves around the world. A 12-year-old girl named Lynne Harper was found raped and strangled to death. Days later, 14-year-old Steven Truscott was charged with her murder. After a two week trial by jury, the boy was found guilty and sentenced to hang, making him the youngest person to sit on Canada's death row. The riveting and poignant true story is seen through the eyes of a fictional character named Sarah, a fellow classmate of Steven and Lynne's as she deals with her own loss of innocence, her world turned upside down and a personal journey to find truth and justice. The play examines the nature of community and how good people make bad choices. Finalist for the 2009 Governor General's Award for Fiction.

Thomas is 100 years old and has one arm and his dad has a wooden leg. Undeterred by their age and respective disabilities, the eccentrically rustic characters embark on a journey across the Irish countryside to find the last remaining successor in their family line, a son that Thomas fathered 70 years ago as the result of a fling. Surreal, moving, thoughtprovoking and uproariously funny.

March 26 – April 21, 2013

Quebec English-language Premiere

AUGUST, AN AFTERNOON IN THE COUNTRY

By Jean-Marc Dalpé

Translated by Maureen Labonté

On a lazy August afternoon in the middle of a heat wave, Monique and her fiancé show up at the family farm to celebrate their engagement with a bottle of champagne. Her relatives, four generations of women, are preparing a special dinner in their honour. At first, pleasantries are shared on the family verandah, but as the afternoon progresses, cracks behind the easy-going facade begin to surface, revealing painful truths and admissions that provoke a startling end to the reunion.

April 30 – May 26, 2013

Montreal Premiere

THE NUMBER 14

By the Number 14 Creative Collective

Directed by Wayne Specht

An Axis Theatre Production

After touring Canada, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, with two runs at The New Victory Theatre on Broadway, The Number 14 and its busload of wacky characters set their GPS to Centaur Theatre! Planning to roll on stage in high gear, the hilarious performers in this knockabout comedy will entertain and amaze with their wild shenanigans using acrobatics, song, mime and the imaginative use of masks inspired by commedia dell'arte. Those on board include an inebriated schoolteacher and her kindergarten class, fare beaters, strangers who fall in lust, and an off-thewall real estate agent who uses the city bus as her boudoir.

First produced by Axis Theatre and Touchstone Theatre, Vancouver, The Number 14 received four Jessie Richardson Awards, a New York Drama Desk nomination and a Dora Mavor Moore nomination.

First performed in 405 BC, The Bacchae is Euripides' last play and greatest accomplishment. Scapegoat Carnivale's adaptation/translation of the classic Greek tragedy is set during the Second Great Awakening, an ecstatic religious revival that took place in a field in Cane Ridge, Kentucky in 1801.

THE 16th ANNUAL WILDSIDE FESTIVALCo-curated by Artistic and Executive Director, Roy Surette, the exciting festival features two weeks of sensational, cutting-edge theatre by local, national and international independent theatre companies, including the jury-selected winner of the Best of the Fringe Award.

URBAN TALESWe are bringing back the humbug for the sixth edition of our Urban Tales series, created in collaboration with Théâtre Urbi et Orbi. Desperate for an evening that is not frosted with festive cheer? Come see Urban Tales, a Quebecois holiday tradition for grown-ups that has soared in popularity over the past 15 years, brought to you in a rather different spirit than that of Christmas.

SATURDAY MORNING CHILDREN'S SERIESSpend quality time with the kids. Bring them to an affordable Saturday morning show! Featuring some of Montreal's local children's theatre companies.

OUTREACH AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECTSCentaur Theatre produces the educational TOT program and the Thursday Chat-Ups and Sunday Talkback series.

THEATRE OF TOMORROW HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAMEach year, close to 3000 students attend special matinee performances through the Theatre of Tomorrow (TOT) program. Centaur Theatre teams up with educators and provides participating high schools with a variety of resources, including tickets at special discount prices, instructional workbooks for teachers and the unique opportunity for students to meet the actors and creative team after the show.

THURSDAY CHAT-UPSAn lecture series designed to enrich your theatre-going experience. Meet well-known playwrights, directors, actors, designers, producers and other theatre artists, up close, in an intimate setting. Chat-Ups are held on select Thursday evenings @ 7 PM in the Seagram Art Gallery, prior to the 8pm show. Free Admission.

SUNDAY TALKBACKSJoin Artistic and Executive Director, Roy Surette, and the cast for a lively post-show discussion following Sunday Evening performances. Ask questions about the play, the actors and the production and discover what happens behind the scenes. Free Admission.